Britain: An official handbook > 1956

BRITAIN: AN OFFICIAL HANDBOOK
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The White Fish Authority
The White Fish Authority was set up by the Sea Fish Industry Act, 1951. to
reorganize, develop and regulate the white fish industry. The Authority is financed
partly by Government grants and loans and partly by a levy on first-hand sales and
by registration fees. It is composed of five independent members, appointed jointly
by the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, the Secretary of State for
Scotland and the Secretary of State for the Home Department, working in con¬
sultation with the industry and consumers through the White Fish Industry Advi¬
sory Council. The Authority has powers, similar to those of the Herring Board,
to carry on research and experiment, to encourage the formation and development
of voluntary arrangements in the industry on a co-operative basis, to promote
exports, to make grants and loans for the acquisition of new boats and engines,
and loans for the purchase of nets and gear for the provision and reconditioning
of processing plants and for the reconditioning of existing boats. Certain of the
Authority’s functions in Scotland and Northern Ireland have been delegated to a
committee consisting of Scottish and Northern Irish members.
Whaling
Whaling is mainly conducted by expeditions, each consisting of a large floating
factory ship accompanied by its attendant whale catchers and tankers, which annually
cover large areas of the Antarctic Ocean. It is regulated by the International Whaling
Commission, set up under the International Whaling Convention of 194b, which
controls the dates of the season and sets a limit on the catch of whales. The offices
of the Commission are in London.
The United Kingdom is the second most important country (after Norway) en¬
gaged in whaling, sending three expeditions to the Antarctic each year. In addition
whaling is also undertaken from a land station on South Georgia, a British island
in the South Atlantic. The value of the whale oil (the most important product)
obtained by the British expeditions in the i954-55 season amounted to nearly
£7 million.
FORESTRY
The greater part of Britain’s timber requirements is met by imports, valued in
1954 at £155 million. The Government is, however, devoting continuous effort
through the Forestry Commission to the long-term task of increasing the country s
timber resources which, over the centuries, and particularly as a result of overfelling
in the two world wars, have been seriously depleted.
Forest Areas
The last census of woodlands (1947-49) disclosed that the total area of woodland
in Great Britain amounted to nearly 3^ million acres,1 or 6-5 per cent of the land
surface. Of the total, 54 per cent lay in England, 37 per cent in Scotland, and 9 per
cent in Wales. The greatest density of woodland in Great Britain is m the north
and east of Scotland—for example, Moray had 21 -6 per cent of its land area under
woodland and Nairn had 19-1 per cent. Another region of high density lies in the
south-east of England—Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire, Kent and Berkshire. Mon¬
mouthshire, on the Welsh border, had 10-7 per cent of its land area under woodland.
1 This total—3,448,362 acres—excludes woods of under 5 acres which were estimated
at 187,000 acres.